Independent – Page 108 – Computer Security Articles

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2019 07:05:00 -0800

That story going round that claims iPhone 11 devices are secretly harvesting your location information even though you’ve told them not to do so? You don’t need to worry about it, and here’s why:

What’s the story?

The tale begins when a security researcher noticed the devices seemed to be sending out location data even when Location Services were switched off on the iPhone.

He thought this was weird, but Apple reassured him that this was “expected behaviour” – and while the company took a little time to figure out what to say about this, it’s answer is convincing, once you know what it means.

What Apple said

The matter relates to iPhone 11’s U1 chip, which brings in an exciting (yet veteran) technology called Ultra Wideband (UWB).

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Independent Krebs

December 5, 2019 admin

Apple Explains Mysterious iPhone 11 Location Requests

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 19:46:02 +0000

KrebsOnSecurity ran a story this week that puzzled over Apple’s response to inquiries about a potential privacy leak in its new iPhone 11 line, in which the devices appear to intermittently seek the user’s location even when all applications and system services are individually set never to request this data. Today, Apple disclosed that this behavior is tied to the inclusion of a new short-range technology that lets iPhone 11 users share files locally with other nearby phones that support this feature, and that a future version of its mobile operating system will allow users to disable it.

ComputerWorld Independent

December 5, 2019 admin

All’s clear to install Microsoft’s November patches

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 07:46:00 -0800

The November passel of patches didn’t include anything earth-shattering; there were no emergency security breaches storming the gates, but good patching hygiene dictates that you get your machine braced for the next round.

If you install patches manually one by one (“Group B,” which I don’t recommend for mere mortals), you need to make sure you have the proper Servicing Stack Updates in place. They’ve all changed in the past month.

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ComputerWorld Independent

December 5, 2019 admin

Throwback Thursday: Bank error in your favor, collect $100,000

Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2019 03:00:00 -0800

It’s the late 1980s, and this pilot fish is working as a teller at small suburban bank with a few branches.

“Automation is catching on, but slowly,” says fish. “We have terminals to process deposits, withdrawals and money orders — but at the end of the day, the branch manager still takes our totals and enters them into a handwritten ledger.”

The terminals use a text-based menu for everything, but for some operations that require a manager’s approval — say, printing a cashier’s check — the manager must walk over, hold down an override key and type in a password to let the teller access the check-printing menu.

Fish notices that the console beeps now and then during the password process. But it doesn’t happen every time, and there’s no pattern he can detect.

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Independent Krebs

December 3, 2019 admin

The iPhone 11 Pro’s Location Data Puzzler

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2019 03:51:15 +0000

One of the more curious behaviors of Apple’s new iPhone 11 Pro is that it intermittently seeks the user’s location information even when all applications and system services on the phone are individually set to never request this data. Apple says this is by design, but that response seems at odds with the company’s own privacy policy.

ComputerWorld Independent

December 3, 2019 admin

Microsoft Patch Alert: November patches behave themselves – with a few exceptions

Credit to Author: Woody Leonhard| Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2019 10:29:00 -0800

What a relief. The only major patching problem for November came from Office, not Windows. We had a handful of completely inscrutable patches – including two .NET non-security previews that apparently did nothing – but that’s the worst of it.

November saw the last security patch for Win10 version 1803. Win10 version 1909 got released, gently. We also had a much-hyped “exploited” zero-day security hole in Internet Explorer (again) that didn’t amount to a hill of beans (again).

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ComputerWorld Independent

November 27, 2019 admin

7 mobile security threats that may catch you by surprise

Credit to Author: James A. Martin| Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 06:24:00 -0800

Even if you're usually savvy about cybersecurity, anyone can have a vulnerable moment (in our writer's case it was his mother's funeral).